I've tried making bacon myself both using pink salt and without pink salt, just a dry rub. The pink salt gives it a more "ham" flavor. Concerns over chemicals aside, I actually prefer just the dry rub because it tastes more like delicious pork than ham. It also tends to be less salty so you can really taste the meat/smoke. As someone else mentioned, a food slicer is really key. I'm pretty good with the knife but I could never slice the pork belly with much consistency.